Dar es Salaam Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
Dar es Salaam is the largest city and erstwhile capital of Tanzania, a country in East Africa.
Contents |
Get in
Dar es Salaam International Airport is served by Swiss Air from Zurich, South African Airways from Johannesburg, Emirates from Dubai, KLM from Amsterdam and British Airways. Kenya Airways also runs a service from Nairobi, which can bring you from frequent Nairobi-London flights.
Get around
By taxis (expensive at average 4000 shillings a trip) or on a Dalla-Dalla, which is a shared taxi, basically a mini-bus, seating (and standing) up to 25 people!
Taxi fares are not fixed. A price must be negotiated before your begin traveling, or the price will be considerablly higher once you reach your destination. It is not customary to tip your driver.
From the airport, taxis cost around TSH 10000 (negotiable to around TSH 8000, or TSH5000 if you walk 200 meters and hail one on the side of the road) to go to city center.
Dalla-Dallas can be stressful to tourists who do not know where they are going and do not speak any Kiswahili. They tend to be very crowded and you must guard your belongings, but they are perfectly navigatable by foreigners. The fare is 200 shillings per passenger. To request a stop (they are not marked), simply yell out, "Shusha!" (pronounced SHOO-sha).
See
The Zoological Gardens, the National Museum, the Village Museum, some excellent Beaches (try the Bahari Beach hotel, about 15km to the north of Dar es Salaam: a small fee is payable by visitors).
Do
If you happen to be staying at the Holiday Hotel, do be sure to check out their roof deck around 7 p.m. Here you will get a great view of the city while watching the sun set and listening to the numerous calls to prayer from nearby Mosques.
For a great day trip, head out to Bangoyo island. Bongoyo is a small, uninhabited island just off the coast. The boat to Bongoyo leaves from Slipway, the upscale set of shops and markets just north of Dar es Salaam. The boat leaves a few times in the morning if there are enough people, and you can get basic food on the island (chips, fish and chips, egg and chips, etc.). You can relax without having to worry about anyone stealing your things. Take a hike around the island, or just relax under a banda on the beach. When you come back, you can get an extremely expensive ice cream or meal at Slipway and watch the sun set. You can also check out the Tinga Tinga paintings at the market.
There are quite a number of night clubs in Dar es Salaam. Probably the most popular is Bilicanas, which is lively and sometimes not quite as full of prostitutes as the other clubs. It is popular with locals and ex-pats alike. Music is varies, depending on the night, from local to congolese to dance to hip-hop. (The only time I've ever heard hip-hop played right before Aqua's "Barbie Girl"; the place goes nuts when they play the cheesy songs). California Dreamers is another club, but it is too full of prostitutes to recommend. There are numerous other smaller clubs that can be fun, but harder to get to.
Buy
For kangas (or khangas), colorful, sarong-like pieces of cloth with Swahili sayings along the bottom, try Kariakoo market or the cloth market on the streets around it. The market has moved a bit recently, but check around south end of Jamhuri st., where there are many textile shops. Here you can also buy kitenge, twice the length of kangas and usually cut in half to form a complete outfit, for around TSH 4000 each. Try asking in here if you want something like a dress made to measure. Kariakoo is also a good place for fresh food, unless you want more "hygienic," packaged Western-style food, in which case there are several supermarkets (such as Shoprite) in the centre of town. Carvings and other touristy souvenirs can be found all over the place. Remember to haggle unless you want to be ripped off.
There is a fantastic craft market in Mwenge, the Mwenge Carvers' Market. Here you can watch many of the artists make the crafts that are sold throughout the country (although some crafts sold in Tanzania are imported from Kenya). Prices range from expensive to extremely cheap. There are many stalls selling similar things, and if you are savvy, you might be able to pit the vendors against each other. The perk of the Mwenge market is the sheer volume of crafts to choose from. If you like the style of something at a specific store (they tend to carry items made by one or two artists), and you have some time, you can meet the artist and have them custom make something for you. The market closes at dusk. Shopping around this time gets you the best deals.
There is a smaller market at Slipway, which is the best place to get Tinga Tinga paintings and large batiks.
Eat
You can get all kinds of delicious meals in Dar. For Italian-style pizza and pasta dishes, try Saverio's. If you like Indian and Chinese food and especially if you're vegetarian, Alcove is the place for you. Istana serves an excellent buffet; cuisines change per day of the week.
A little-known restaurant called Addis in Dar (on Ursino Street) is superb. This Ethiopian restaurant offers excellent food costing about TSH 7000 per dish. They serve chicken, beef, lamb and vegetarian dishes (mostly stews, but some come without sauce) on a bed of injera, a moist and springy Ethiopian flatbread. The decor is fantastic and the atmosphere is excellent as well. Try the Ethiopian honey wine before your meal and the beautifully-presented coffee after.
Near the budget hotels in the Indian quarter is a restaurant called Chef's Pride. It caters mostly to tourists, but is very reasonably priced. Milap is a vegetarian Indian Restaurant with very cheap prices. There's also a Subway near the YMCA (or YWCA?) that is air-conditioned, and a nice treat if you're hankering for some food of a western nature. The YWCA, near the Cathedral, has a delicious and cheap canteen where you can order a traditional Tanzanian meal for under TSH 2000.
For upscale meals, visit The Royal Palm Hotel, the New Africa Hotel (which has an excellent Thai restaurant on its roof), or the Slipway.
But the best place to eat, both in terms of price and atmosphere, is on the street. Places to try include the corner of Morogoro road and Jamhuri street, or the large open space in front of the Dar Express bus company ticket office. Chips mayai (chips in an omelette) should be about 700 or 800 shillings.
Drink
You should only drink bottled water. A 1.5-liter bottle will cost you only 450 shillings, but you can also drink tap water if you've purified it with iodine tablets or boiled it. Kilimanjaro and Safari are both popular choices of beer. Both are strong and bottled. Most Tanzanian men who drink Safari dismiss Kili as a ladies' drink, while some Tanzanians consider Safari a lower-class beer. Safari is a little bit stronger, and most people reckon it gives you a bad hangover. Tusker (from Kenya) and Castel Lager (from South Africa, brewed under licence in Dar) are also excellent options. If you go to the Florida Inn near the UN building by the ferry port, you can get Castel on tap, as well as nice air conditioning and a pool table. Serengeti is also a very popular choice of lager in Tanzania. Konyagi is a popular local gin, and its variant Konyagi Ice is comparable to hard lemonade and other sweet drinks.
Soda is also available and comes in a glass bottle. You are usually asked to return the bottle.
The only bar in the Indian section of Dar, near the budget hotels, is the New Protein Bar, across the street from the Holiday Hotel on Jamhuri Street.
Sleep
Accommodation varies from TSH 1500/night rooms to the Royal Palm hotel (now renamed Movenpick) with a swimming pool and restaurant. The YMCA (near Posta Dala Dala stand) is the main place to stay and meet fellow travelers. It fills up quickly, but is cheap and clean. There are no en-suite facilities, but there are sit-down toilets. Other decent places are YWCA (near Posta) and Jambo Inn (near Libya Street and Morogoro Road). Also try Safari Inn and Econo Lodge (around TSH 20000 for a double, with fan and hot shower), very near the Jambo. Cheaper than any of the above is Holiday Hotel (with prison-cell-like rooms) on Jamhuri Street, also in the Indian quarter near Safari and Jambo.
International business-class hotels include the Sea Cliff, out of town on the edge of the ocean, and the more central Holiday Inn. For East Africa, both hotels are incredibly good, as is their food. Expect to pay up to US$170 per night.
Get out
To get to Zanzibar: You may fly, take a ferry, or hire a dhow. Flights are roughly 75USD and average around 30 minutes. Ferries leave four times per day and cost about 35USD--they take 2 to 3+ hours depending on the ferry. Tickets can be bought from the docks near German church, all tickets for tourists regardless of which ferry you want to travel on, are bought from the 'flying horse' ticket window. Although it is improving, watch out for touts, scams, and pick-pockets in this area. Buy your tickets only from the ticket windows. Although you might manage to save some money by getting a resident rate, you could also get into a lot of trouble without a resident permit. Hiring a dhow, while an adventure, is not recommended for tourists (it may even be illegal). Prepare to work hard, be sea sick, perhaps become dangerously dehydrated and sunburned, and it could take 1-2 days.
Air: There are flights to Arusha (kilimanjaro airport) on all the major airlines that fly into Dar es Salaam. Air Tanzania and Coastal air have local flights to all major cities in Tanzania. Flights are generally late, but reliable. Flying on these airlines to Arusha is preferred as you arrive at Arusha airport, not Kilimanjaro airport, which is 35 minutes, and a very expensive taxi away.
Train: There are two trains running out of Dar Es Salaam from different stations. Tanzania Railroad is a train that travels through the center of Tanzania to Dodoma and further West, even up to Mwanza; however, the train tends to be unreliable, not terribly pleasant, and full of thieves. Tourists should try to travel in groups, and/or buy out a first class cabin. Keep the doors and windows locked, especially when sleeping. The train travels at walking pace much of the time, so it is possible to buy fresh fruit, eggs, and other items out of the windows all along the way. Tazara runs a much nicer, though not much more on-time train to the south, which goes through part of the Selous National Park, through Mbeya, and down to Komperi Mposhi in Zambia (about 2 to 3 hours from Lusaka). Tazara has a large train station just out on the edge of town. Visas for Zambia are available on the train. This is a nice but slow way to travel, as it takes about 2 days.
Bus: Bus travel is generally reliable if you pick the right company. It can be somewhat scary as Tanzanian's seem to value arriving quickly more than arriving safely ('Mungu akipenda, tutafika' - If god wants it, we shall arrive). Scandinavia (a bus company) is your best bet for a reliable schedule, a comfortable ride (many of the buses have air conditioning), and timely stops. Scandinavia runs their own bus station in Dar Es Salaam, and tickets should be purchased ahead of time. If you are traveling to Arusha, Royal Coach is perhaps an even better option. The buses are very nice, have A/C, a bathroom, and travel at 80kph for safety. The Royal Coach ticket office is located down town near the Jambo Inn and Econolodge: buses leave from here early in the morning as well. All other buses leave from Dar Es Salaam's central bus station, Ubungo, just west of the city (about 5000 to 7000 tsh taxi ride from downtown). Here you can find buses to the majority of other cities. Although there are many touts outside of Ubungo's ticket area, they are mostly harmless. If you are put off by them, ask the Taxi to take you inside the station for a small extra fee. The ticket offices are located just outside the station, though you can buy the tickets from the bus if you have entered already. This might be a better idea regardless, as you cannot tell the state of the bus from outside, nor how full the bus is (buses will only leave when completely full). Some of the cheaper lines run buses which are remarkably dilapidated and uncomfortable, will take a very long time to fill up, and will likely have to stop more often on the way, assuming they make it at all. Some of the more reputable bus companies are Scandinavia, Dar Express, Abood, and Hood. Bus travel by night is not allowed, so most buses except for those to nearby cities will leave early in the morning.
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